"Thus it is said that one who knows the enemy and knows himself will not be endangered in a hundred engagements."
Sun Tzu, The Art of War.

Thursday, April 09, 2009

Afghan Girl Gets Help from Soldiers, Americans

By Army Pfc. Kimberly D. ColeSpecial to American Forces Press Service

April 9, 2009 - A 2-year-old girl from Afghanistan's Gardez province and her family flew to Cincinnati earlier this month to have reconstructive surgery on the child's trachea, a procedure made necessary after the girl swallowed a battery last year. Nazia Gardezi had been a permanent resident of the intensive-care wing at Craig Joint Theater Hospital here since October, when she was brought back to the hospital with severe pneumonia due the family's inability to suction her airway properly.

"Unfortunately," explained Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Robert Elwood, chief pediatrician at the hospital, "this kind of airway takes a certain amount of routine care. A lot of suctioning needs to take place, and the family's living circumstances made it where they were really incapable of taking care of it properly."

Elwood said the team of physicians who treated Nazia here was able to repair the injury to her esophagus, but the airway had narrowed from scarring, and Nazia could not move air in and out of her lungs.

"Fortunately, a group from Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center learned of her case and has offered a team of highly specialized surgeons to do a reconstruction of her trachea," Elwood said.

As the team of physicians prepared Nazia for her four-to-six-month trip, Elwood said she will be greatly missed.

"She has learned to walk here, and has learned a very impressive vocabulary for a 2-year-old," Elwood said. "The team has come to think of her like one of their own children. You have to stand in line to get a chance to play with her."